The Church in Oz

Hello and welcome to the last AP (action Project) for my class, Stories. In this unit, called The Hero's Journey, we studied Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth, Freytag's Pyramid, and types of conflict. For this AP, we were to explore 2 heroes' journeys, one fictional and real one. Our fictional hero didn't necessarily have to impact our lives drastically, but our real-life hero was to be someone who has impacted our lives and changed them for the better. That hero for me is my mother. She has been through thick and thin to help others and to help me. In this AP I go into detail about my two heroes and how their journeys went through Joseph Campbell's stages.

For my fictional hero, I chose Zelena Mills from ABC's Once Upon A Time. At first, I had wanted to do her sister, Regina Mills, but her story was much too complex to figure out one arc. I chose Zelena because I felt like her story was so grounded in this show about magic and curses. She goes through abandonment, abuse, neglect, and most of all jealousy. Her story, in short, is that she was abandoned by her mother (named Cora) because Zelena couldn't lead Cora into the royal life. From there, a cyclone took baby Zelena to Oz where a poor miller couple took her in. Soon after, Zelena's adoptive mother died her father began to verbally and physically abuse her because she could use magic. As soon as she was old enough to venture alone, she went into the middle of Oz to meet with the Wizard of Oz. There he showed her everything her family has and she grew jealous. This is where her journey begins.

• Call to Action 

The first time Zelena wants to be good is when the good witch of the North, Glinda, brings her to the heart of Oz. Glinda tells her it is her destiny to fill the position of the Innocent Witch of the West in the sisterhood of witches. Glinda explains that the Book of Records of Oz, which holds its present, past and future, says that the fourth and final witch would arrive through a cyclone, exactly how Zelena arrived in Oz.

• Refusal of Call 

At first, Zelena declines the offer, she felt as though she is far from innocent. She also still yearned to go back in time and changer her past.

• Supernatural Aid 

Glinda gives Zelena a pendant that the sisterhood of witches wear to hold their magic so they can control and grow it. With it, she is more powerful; without it, she has no magic.

• Crossing the First Threshold 

With the pendant and the offer of sisters, Zelena finally chooses to become a good person. She lets go of the envy of her sister, Regina, and this is represented with her skin coming back to normality after being green with envy.

• The road of Trials - A

Almost immediately after Zelena joins the sisterhood, a cyclone from Kansas enters Oz. In it is Dorothy Gale and her dog, Toto. Instantly Zelena is cautious of her. She becomes warier when Glinda calls Dorothy a special girl, as she did Zelena. She feels threatened because all of her sisterhood takes to liking Dorothy. Zelena thinks Dorothy is more innocent than her, and soon she once again turns green from envy. Reading the Book of Records for Oz, Zelena reads that the sorcerous that came in a cyclone would kill the greatest evil that would affect Oz. Full of envy she believes that Dorothy would take her seat and she would be the greatest evil.

• Temptation 

Zelena being able to see what Regina, her half-sister, made her incredibly jealous. Regina had the attention of their mother, riches, dresses, and the “honor” to cast Rumpelstiltskin’s curse. Zelena felt that she deserved all of it, not Regina.

• Apostasis - A 

Zelena is killed by Rumpelstiltskin to avenge his son's death which Zelena caused.

• The Road of Trials - B 
• Zelena truly didn’t die when Rumple ‘killed’ her. Zelena’s essence simply left the material world and manifested itself in that past enchanted forest where she regained her body. She switched with Marian, Robin’s wife, and came back to current time. This is where she begins again to enact her revenge upon Regina. 
• She takes away Regina’s true love by impersonating Robin’s wife and having Robin leave Storybrooke with her. 
• Zelena also gets revenge on Rumple by just being alive as Rumple had killed her to avenge his son, Baelfire. Zelena also leads Rumple near death to give him an ultimatum of death or forcing the author to give her a happy ending. 
• To put salt on Regina’s wound, Zelena gets pregnant by Robin. This hurts Regina deeply as she cannot have a child. 

• Meeting with the Goddess

Unfortunately, through her revenge on getting pregnant, Zelena becomes smitten with the idea that her child would love her unconditionally.

• Mentor 

Through her next set of trials, Regina helps Zelena get on the right path because she sees herself in her older sister.

• The Road of Trials - C 
• With a baby coming Zelena wants people to see that she can be better so they leave her and her child alone. But, when Arthur offers to help her, she willingly turns in everybody and hurts them. 
• After escaping the Dark Swan and revealing what she had done to Killian, Zeleena went to see her baby. Zelena was distraught when she found that the baby had a protection spell, as she couldn’t get near her little girl. After agreeing to custody between her and Robin, she wasn’t satisfied and decided to take her baby away from Robin. 
• Zelena is then stopped by Regina and thrown into a cyclone back to Oz. And though she quickly returns, she is just as quickly leaves to the underworld after her baby was taken through a portal. 
• After again stealing her child, Zelena accidentally hurts her little girl with magic. Zelena is then drenched with guilt that she would hurt her child. 

• Belly of the Whale

After hurting her baby, Zelena doesn’t trust herself to take care of her daughter, so she returns her to Robin and Regina so that they can protect her. Zelena is even willing to give up custody as long as her baby remains safe. This is where she once again starts becoming the person Glinda always knew she could be.

• Atonement with the Father 

When Zelena, at last, gets her closure with her mother she finally has it in her to be the good person she was meant to be. She atones for all of her bad deeds when she makes the choice to kill her true love, Hades, to save everyone.

• Apostasis - B 

Zelena is heartbroken because of the loss of Hades, her true love.

• Ultimate Boon 

Zelena now has her daughter, named Robin, her sister’s love, and peoples trust in Storybrooke.

• Crossing the Return Threshold 

Zelena now becomes the person Glinda always knew she could be. After all of her suffering, Zelena came through it all and remained a good person.



For my real hero, I chose my mom, MSS. I chose my mother as my real hero because she inspires me every day to become a more caring and compassionate person. Knowing everything she went through in her childhood and how much she fought to be here and be able to send money to our family is so inspiring. She also takes care of me on top of it all! This may sound very cheesy, but her story makes me reflect upon my own life and what direction I think I’m going in. She has and will continue to shape my life.

• Call to Action 

Ever since my mom was little she saw my grandmother struggle to feed her and her siblings. Then as she grew older, she saw my aunts and uncles struggle to feed their children. From seeing all this and being unable to help at the time came my mom’s innate desire to just be able to shelter and feed the young children, which then became wanting to help others.

• Supernatural Aid 

When my mom was 17, she went with a priest to give out gifts to children on Christmas. Here she says she felt the calling of God to help others.

• Crossing the First Threshold 

My mother crossed the threshold from her ordinary life at home to her life in the congregation when she decided to become a missionary nun to help others.

• Belly of the Whale 

My mother completed her transformation to the special world (going into the congregation) as she went through her training to be a nun and actually becoming one. From there, she would help many people, but there was still unable to help her family.

• Road of Trials 
• My mom often got sick and had to sit out of some of the missions the congregation did. 
• Though being a nun help soothe her desire to help people, she couldn’t help the people most important to her in the congregation. Our family had a lot of economic problems, so she had to make the decision to leave the conjugation to find a job. 
• Finding a job was also difficult as the only ones available were factory jobs that were heavy labor, something my mother wasn't used to. 

• Atonement 

My mom still looks for forgiveness through God, and even through herself for leaving her family in order to come to America and work here.

• Apostasis

My mother felt ad though she was hopeless, alone, and guilty when my grandmother, her mother, died. She couldn’t go to see her for over a decade before my grandmother died, and she felt guilty that she couldn't.

• Ultimate Boon 

My mother says that when I was born she felt complete because when she figured out her purpose in life one was to have a child. She feels fulfilled now because she can sustain be with my other mother’s help, and has enough money to send back to our family in Mexico.

• Master of Two Worlds

My mother says she has found a balance between her ordinary life and her life as a nun. She still helps people in anyway she can, if it’s giving money, a helping hand, being a friend she will offer it to people. But she still sticks to her family and helping them as well, sending money and support. And then there is her child, me, who she takes care of and supports.

Now I can imagine what you’re thinking, “why out of everyone to compare to your mother, you chose Zelena Mills.,” and I shall tell you why. Zelena’s arc is not identical to my mothers at all. But I believe that both of them were trying to reach for the same thing, being a good person. My mother wanted to do that by helping others through her congregation and Zelena finally did that when she killed Hades. Talking about Hades, both of them suffered a great loss before figuring out that they had done something good. Zelena kills Hades but from that, she got everything else she could have wanted. My mother wasn’t with my grandmother when she died in Mexico, but from experiencing the pain and sorrow from it she decided to help more people, including her daughter.

Here Is the interview I did with my mother and a transcript since it's in Spanish.